Marvis is an Italian oral-care brand best known for its distinctive, premium toothpaste. Originating in Florence, Italy, the brand has built an identity around unusual flavors, vintage-inspired packaging, strong visual branding, and the idea that brushing one’s teeth can be an enjoyable lifestyle ritual rather than a purely functional hygiene task. Today, Marvis is part of Ludovico Martelli S.p.A., the Florence-based Italian family company also associated with brands such as Proraso.

Marvis is fundamentally a toothpaste brand, but its significance in the beauty and personal-care market comes from how successfully it has transformed an ordinary commodity into a sensory and design-oriented product. 1

Most conventional toothpaste brands primarily communicate around functional benefits such as cavity protection, gum health, whitening, freshness, and plaque removal. Marvis incorporates those functions but places much greater emphasis on flavor, aesthetics, texture, packaging, and personal experience. The company’s own positioning describes Marvis as going beyond the traditional concept of toothpaste and turning a mundane daily routine into something pleasurable. 1

This approach makes Marvis behave more like a premium beauty or lifestyle brand than a standard consumer goods company. Its current global communication revolves around the phrase “Marvel your routine,” framing the daily act of brushing teeth as an opportunity for enjoyment rather than a chore. 1

Origins in Florence

Marvis is associated with Florence, the Tuscan city famous for Renaissance art, craftsmanship, fashion, fragrance, and luxury goods. However, the brand deliberately treats much of its early history as mysterious. Its official storytelling offers fictionalized accounts regarding the aristocratic-looking man—known as “the Marquis”—depicted on its tubes, explicitly stating that the true identity of this figure is unknown. 2

Secondary sources commonly identify 1958 as an important date in the brand’s history. Regional sources state that the brand was created in Florence in 1958 by Aquilio Gastaldello, initially producing professional oral-care products for dentists and the medical sector. Another historical source notes that the first registration of the Marvis brand dates to 1958. 2

Acquisition by Ludovico Martelli

The most clearly documented milestone occurred in 1997, when Ludovico Martelli acquired Marvis. This acquisition fundamentally changed the trajectory of the brand. Ludovico Martelli repositioned Marvis from a relatively obscure toothpaste brand into a distinctive, internationally recognizable premium oral-care label. The company focused heavily on distinctive flavors, premium packaging, Italian manufacturing, sensory experience, design, humor, and lifestyle positioning. 3

Marvis itself describes 1997 as the moment when it entered the Ludovico Martelli company and became the “iconic” toothpaste brand it is today. 3

Ludovico Martelli S.p.A. is an Italian family-owned company based in Florence. Corporate documentation states it was founded in Florence in 1908 and is now a fourth-generation family company specializing in cosmetics and toiletries. It currently has a portfolio of 13 brands, including Marvis and Proraso.

The company has expertise in turning traditionally utilitarian grooming products into strongly branded items. For example:

• Proraso: Shaving
• Marvis: Oral care
• Valobra: Soap
• Floïd: Aftershave

Marvis fits naturally into Ludovico Martelli’s broader philosophy of combining Italian heritage, grooming rituals, product quality, and strong brand identity.

One of Marvis’s most recognizable assets is the aristocratic-looking man printed on its toothpaste tubes, generally referred to by the brand as the Marquis. Marvis intentionally refuses to provide a completely serious answer about his identity. Official storytelling offers increasingly absurd explanations, suggesting he may have founded the brand, invented toothpaste, been from Florence, or was actually a missing person whose image ended up on a tube. 2

This is a deliberate branding device that creates a mythology around the packaging, giving the brand a slightly mysterious and eccentric personality rather than relying on a conventional founder narrative.

Although toothpaste is the core of the brand, Marvis has expanded into several oral-care categories. As of recent updates, the official global site presents the brand as a broader oral-care ecosystem.

Toothpaste Collections

The range is divided into several collections:

Classic Collection

• Classic Strong
• Aquatic
• Ginger
• Amarelli Licorice
• Cinnamon
• Anise
• Jasmin

Care Collection

• Sensitive
• Whitening
• Smokers

Blended Collection

• Orange Blossom Bloom
• Black Forest
• Sweet & Sour Rhubarb

There are also limited-edition flavors, including products such as Kissing Rose, Sinuous Lily, and Dreamy Osmanthus.

Signature Flavors

Flavor is perhaps Marvis’s most distinctive product characteristic. Rather than treating toothpaste flavor as a secondary attribute, Marvis makes it a central part of the brand.

• Classic Strong Mint: The flagship product, using peppermint designed for an intense, long-lasting sensation of freshness.
• Jasmin Mint: Combines mint with floral jasmine notes, giving the toothpaste a perfumery-inspired character.
• Cinnamon Mint: Combines cinnamon’s sweetness and spice with menthol freshness.
• Aquatic Mint: Combines mint with marine/fresh notes, creating an unusual interpretation of toothpaste freshness.
• Ginger Mint: Combines mint with a slightly spicy ginger profile.
• Amarelli Licorice: Uses Amarelli licorice, connecting the toothpaste to the historic Italian licorice maker Amarelli.
• Experimental Flavors: Newer ranges include complex profiles such as Black Forest, which combines dark chocolate, cherry, Amaretto marzipan, and peppermint.

Other Products

Beyond toothpaste, the portfolio includes:

Mouthwash
The brand sells both ready-to-use and concentrated mouthwash products in flavors such as Classic Strong Mint, Jasmin Mint, Whitening Mint, Sensitive Gums Gentle Mint, Spearmint, Cinnamon Mint, and Anise Mint.

Accessories
Marvis sells toothbrushes, toothbrush holders, and gift sets. 4

Travel Sizes
Its toothpaste is available in smaller 10 ml and 25 ml travel formats, with selected mouthwash also available in travel sizes.

Marvis describes its toothpaste as a rich, concentrated, old-style paste. According to the brand, its formulas use carefully selected cleaning powders intended to provide effective cleaning without damaging enamel and dentin. The brand states that its traditional concentrated formulations are preservative-free and contain no ingredients of animal origin.

The exact formulation varies by product and market. For example, the European version of Classic Strong contains fluoride, xylitol, hydrated silica, calcium carbonate, peppermint oil, menthol, and flavor compounds. Marvis states that fluoride and xylitol contribute to cavity prevention and control of oral bacterial flora. Ingredient claims should always be checked against the specific tube and market, as compositions can differ between regions such as North America and Europe.

“Made in Italy” is an important part of Marvis’s positioning. The company says that its flavor development involves collaboration with prestigious fragrance houses and expert perfumers who search for high-quality ingredients and flavor profiles. The toothpaste is then produced 100% in Italy. This integration of Italian origin into the product story through manufacturing, design, and fragrance culture distinguishes it from brands that merely use Italian imagery as decoration.

The toothpaste traditionally comes in distinctive aluminum-style tubes with colored bodies, decorative typography, and the Marquis illustration. The packaging makes Marvis immediately recognizable even when the logo itself is not the primary visual element. This is unusual in the toothpaste category, where packaging is normally dominated by clinical claims, dental imagery, and functional benefits.

Marvis instead resembles products found alongside perfume, shaving products, skincare, and luxury grooming items. The colored tubes create a sense of collectibility; consumers often view different flavors as building a visual collection rather than just selecting a hygiene product. This strategy encourages variety and repeat purchase, shifting the consumer mindset from “I need another tube of toothpaste” to “I want to try another Marvis flavor.”

Marvis occupies an unusual position between oral care, premium personal care, beauty/grooming, and lifestyle/design. At the functional level, it competes with mass-market oral-care companies, but at the branding level, it is closer to the world of premium grooming, fragrance, and beauty.

If Marvis were a person, its personality would likely be described as an Italian gentleman combined with an eccentric artist, perfumer, and fashion enthusiast. Its communication is witty, confident, playful, artistic, irreverent, and sophisticated. It does not attempt to behave like a dentist; instead of emphasizing scientific proof alone, it asks why brushing teeth should be boring.

The brand’s philosophy reduces to four ideas:

1. Function: The toothpaste must still clean teeth and support oral hygiene.
2. Flavor: Brushing should be pleasurable rather than merely tolerable.
3. Design: The product should look good enough to display.
4. Personality: A daily routine can have humor and individuality.

Marvis’s premium perception stems from the combination of Italian origin, Made-in-Italy production, distinctive packaging, concentrated texture, unusual flavors, fragrance-inspired development, brand storytelling, limited editions, gift sets, and lifestyle marketing. It serves as an example of perceived value being created through branding and experience in addition to functional performance.

• 1908: Ludovico Martelli company founded in Florence.
• 1958: Commonly cited origin/registration date for Marvis; regional sources associate the brand’s creation with Florence and Aquilio Gastaldello. 2
• 1997: Ludovico Martelli acquires Marvis, marking the decisive modern turning point for the brand. 3
• Post-1997: Marvis is repositioned around premium toothpaste, distinctive flavor, Italian production, and iconic packaging.
• Later Expansion: The brand develops multiple toothpaste collections, limited editions, mouthwash, accessories, sets, and travel formats.
• Today: Marvis operates internationally as a premium, design-led Italian oral-care brand under Ludovico Martelli.

1. Marvis | The Official Site of the Iconic Toothpaste
2. Câu chuyện thương hiệu | Marvis Việt Nam
3. Marvis
4. MARVIS LÀM NÊN “LẦN ĐẦU TIÊN” ĐẶC BIỆT TRONG LỊCH SỬ ELLE BEAUTY AWARDS VIỆT NAM | Marvis Việt Nam